MassDOT deployed HEKA (Highway Engineer Knowledge Assistant), an internal AI chatbot that helps highway engineers quickly find answers to questions about project rules, regulations, and design specifications. The tool went live in November 2024 and is used daily by engineers across the Highway Division.

HEKA is built on Amazon Bedrock and uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to respond to queries about highway project design guides, specifications, and standard operating procedures, drawing from documents stored in SharePoint. The tool was developed through the Northeastern University Burnes Center AI for Impact co-op program. In early testing, engineers observed a 78% time savings compared to manual document searches. As of May 2025, MassDOT's AI team was exploring wider adoption with the Highway business unit.